He could be earning several thousand dollars a month and be on a fat annual kit contract simply by using the US passport he has courtesy of his father�s nationality.

He could be earning several thousand dollars a month and be on a fat annual kit contract simply by using the US passport he has courtesy of his father's nationality. Yet Andrew Lemoncello survives on a shoestring budget while working 30-hour weeks in an Arizona sushi restaurant as he trains at altitude and nurtures lofty ambitions to represent Scotland at a home Commonwealth Games and Britain in the London Olympics.

His American girlfriend urges him to switch and become eligible for prize money available only to US-qualified athletes. Raised in Fife, with a Scottish mum and American dad, he has only to say he wants to run for the USA. He would then be eligible for the $50,000 prize for first in US trials, and $10,000 in road races from one mile to 25k, which he could contest for most of the year.

"I could be into that every few weeks," he says. "Guys in my group make a lot of money, but I don't want to change. My agent was on the brink of concluding sponsorship for me when the company stopped all deals because of the recession. It was pretty tough to hear that. But if I were running for the US, I could get one."

At least he has the luxury of free physiotherapy. "My girlfriend, Julie, is a physical therapist and an ex-runner. I'm enjoying life, and running is going well."

That's an understatement. This year he's run the fastest half marathon (61:52) and fastest track 10k (27:57.23) by a Brit for almost a decade, and his 5000m this month (13.33.01) was the best by any Scot for 12 years. It's quality is marked by the fact that it is sixth all-time, ahead of such as John Robson and Glen Stewart.

"The 10k is the B standard for the World Championships in Berlin, but selectors say I must come back for the trial in July," he says. "I won't do that.

The travel and time change is too disruptive to training."

So the BUPA London 10k this morning is a crossroads. He has represented Britain in the steeplechase at the last World and Olympic championships, "but I'll almost certainly never race it again. I'll have regrets, but that's outweighed by the excitement I feel about running my first marathon next April."

Lemoncello has spent a few days with Scottish mentor Ron Morrison in St Andrews, but tomorrow will return to his base in Flagstaff to discuss the future with coach Greg McMillan. "Basically, it looks like the road from here on. If they want to select me for the 10k in Berlin on the strength of what I've done, fine, but I am not coming back for the trial. I need to know now, because in a few days, my programme for the rest of the year will be finalised.

"If they wait until after the trials and offer me the place because nobody has run as fast, and I have to reject it, so be it. I'll already be committed."

His 10k is already faster than that of Allister Hutton, the Scottish marathon record-holder. "I haven't got the best out of myself over the winter in recent years, after I have flogged myself on the track," says Lemoncello, "so with no championship this summer, I'll get into marathon mileage now. I've regularly done 120 miles a week, and got up to 130 once. I need to get used to that kind of mileage on a regular basis."

However, he has one bit of unfinished track business. "No way will I run a marathon at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi next year, but I want to be there. I hope to do the 10k, or 5k, though I'd run the 100 metres if I could. Conditions will be awful. I won't contemplate the marathon in that kind of heat."

Lemoncello flew home a week past Friday for last Sunday's Manchester 10k. "I went to bed at 10pm, woke at midnight, and never got back to sleep before the race. I did not run well seventh, 29:18. That nowhere near reflects my fitness. I think I'm over the jet lag, and hope to do very much better in London."

n BUPA London 10k is live on Channel 5: 9.50am - 11.0.